UK Stocks -- Factors to watch on Sept 28

By IBT Staff Reporter On 09/28/09 AT 8:33 AM

Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE index is seen opening 7 to 15 points, or as much as 0.3 percent lower on Monday, according to financial bookmakers, tracking weaker showings in Asia after falls on Wall Street on Friday, with investors nervously looking ahead to this week U.S. jobs report.

The UK blue chip index closed 2.93 points higher on Friday at 5,082.20 but overall the benchmark index ended the week lower for the first time since the end of August.

Mining shares may be in focus after Anglo American (AAL.L) said commodities growth in China, which has a huge appetite for resources, may ease over the short-term, though longer term the country's fundamentals were sound.

Energy stocks may also come under pressure with oil prices CLc1 slipping below $66 a barrel as investors focused on the halting economic recovery in the United States and shrugged off escalating tensions between Iran and the west.

The annual drop in house prices in England and Wales eased to 5.6 percent in September from 6.7 percent in August, the slowest annual pace of decline since August 2008, property data company Hometrack said on Monday.

Estate agents surveyed by Hometrack reported that property prices rose by 0.2 percent in September to an average of 156,100 pounds ($249,600), the fastest monthly increase since June 2007, versus a 0.1 percent monthly rise in August.

Britain's next government must spell out how it will return the budget to balance by 2015, two years earlier than planned by the current Labour administration, business lobby the Confederation of British Industry said on Monday.

ANGLO AMERICAN (AAL.L) The miner said on Monday commodities growth in China may ease over the short-term, though longer term the country's fundamentals were sound.

BHP BILLITON (BLT.L) The miner's 1.3 million dollar loan to Charles Chip Goodyear is still to be repaid, despite the former chief executive leaving the company in January last year, the Sunday Telegraph said.

ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND (RBS.L) The bank is to break up RBS Asset Management by selling the majority part of the 50 billion pound division as part of a series of fund raising moves, the Daily Telegraph said on Saturday.

BARCLAYS (BARC.L) The bank is confident that the worst is behind its emerging markets retail and commercial banking division, which reported a loss of 86 million pounds in the first six months compared with a profit of 52 million pounds in the same period of 2008, the Financial times said on Monday.

GLAXOSMITHKLINE (GSK.L) The drugs maker has completed an innovative 1.5 billion euro contract with Brazil, guaranteeing sales of Synflorix, its pneumococcal vaccine, designed to prevent pneumonia and meningitis over the entire life of the product, the Financial Times said on Monday.

ASTRAZENECA (AZN.L) Astrazeneca and Belgium's UCB (UCB.BR) have formed an alliance for the commercialization of UCB's drug Cimzia in Brazil for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease. [

LEGAL & GENERAL (LGEN.L) The life insurer has prepared a defence document to ward off a possible takeover approach from insurance tycoon Clive Cowdery's Resolution vehicle, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

CADBURY (CBRY.L) Kraft Foods

(KFT.N) is poised to launch a hostile bid for Cadbury valuing the British confectionery business at around 11 billion pounds ($17.6 billion), a report in The Observer newspaper said.

Also, Kraft's hopes of a takeover of Cadbury have been boosted by a fall in the value of sterling against the U.S. dollar, the Financial Times said on Monday.

TESCO (TSCO.L) The food retailer is in talks to sell a 400 million pound property portfolio to Index Linked Properties, a newly-formed investment company, the Financial Times said on Monday. MARKS & SPENCER (MKS.L) M&S is expected to report a 1.5 per cent fall in like-for-like sales on Wednesday amid intensifying competition among grocers which has seen the retailer lose market share, The Times said on Monday. J SAINSBURY (SBRY.L) The food retailer is to invest millions of pounds in a new coupon-based loyalty scheme in its biggest investment in a customer reward scheme since it launched the Nectar card in 2002, the Mail on Sunday and The Daily Telegraph said on Monday.

BP (BP.L) BP is set to be overtaken by Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) as the UK's largest oil producer following investments of around 40 billion dollars in projects from Qatar and Brazil, the Daily Telegraph said on Saturday.

ITV (ITV.L) The broadcaster ITV is facing opposition from leading shareholders over the possible appointment of former Reed Elsevier boss Sir Crispin Davis as its chairman, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

Other candidates for the chairmanship of ITV (ITV.L) are thought to include former Channel 4 chairman Sir Michael Bishop, former BT chairman Sir Christopher Bland and British Airways chairman Martin Broughton, The Independent said on Monday.

BRITISH AIRWAYS (BAY.L) Regional airline Flybe is understood to have registered an interest in buying part or all of BMI British Midland from Lufthansa (LHAG.DE), with industry sources expecting Flybe to partner British Airways in a bid, the Sunday Times said.

MARSTON'S (MARS.L) Travelodge and Marston's will unveil a plan to build a string of hotels and pubs on shared sites, part of a battle for the budget business traveller's custom with Premier Inn, owned by Whitbread (WTB.L), The Times said on Monday.

RETAILERS Private equity-owned fashion retailer New Look is drawing up plans for a 1.7 billion pound plus stock market float, with a formal parade of investment banks due to begin immediately, as advisers are expected to be appointed within weeks, and it could eventually list in the stock market as early as January, the Sunday Telegraph said.

MITIE GROUP (MTO.L) The support services group holds its annual general meeting.